Electric connecting panel



Aug. 19, 1941. M; B. RICHTER E'rAL I ELECTRIC CONNECTING PANEL Filed March 22, 1939 INVENTORS mu m 1 7 I {Ix J d H B a ATTYs.

o o O O O O O O O Patented Aug. '19, 1941 Morten BalthazarRichter, Copenhagen, and Willy Soborg, near Copenhagen,

Romeorenu Schytte, Denmark, assignors matic A/ S, Copenhagen,

Telefon Fabrik Auto- Denmark, a-stockholders company of Denmark Application March 22, 1939, Serial No. 263,570 In Denmark March '23, 1-938 8 Claims.

for automatic telephone exchange and like systems, the terminals are usually arranged in a number of rows and maintained in position relatively to one another by way of a terminal support prepared from an electric insulating material.

The present invention relates to an improvement in making connections to the terminals of such banks, especially of the kind in which the terminal support is fitted with holes in which the terminals are inserted and maintained by friction effect. Generally, the terminals of the banks of electric selector switches and other distributing frames project beyond the rear side of the frame or bank so as to allow a portion of the conductors to be connected to the terminal to be lodged in the space between the projecting ends of the terminal, whereby the said portions of the conductors are well protected against external mechanical influence.

In terminal banks, the conductors to be connected to the terminals are soldered to the latter, and solder joints thus formed are very much inclined to get loosened by mechanical influence, owing to a pull or the like in the said conductors by the mounting, repair, inspection or addition of new connections or due to vibration of the apparatus during the operation of the same, and this drawback causes much trouble, because the ends of the conductors are not easily accessible and are difficult to identify.

Now, according to the present invention the connections between the terminals and the conductors are performed in such a manner that neither vibrations of the frame or bank nor such pulls in the conductors connected to the terminal, which usually may be caused during the mounting, inspection, repair or such frames or banks, would cause the solder joints between the conductors to be exposed to a mechanical influence with the result that the joints become loosened.

According to the present invention, there is inserted between each terminal and the conductor connected thereto a resilient member, which preferably consists of a portion of the conductor itself, which portion is wound to form a cylindrical-or preferably conical-he1ical coil adapted to be pushed over the portion of the terminal projecting beyond the rear face of the bank or frame in question. The said coil is connected to the terminal at its outermost end only and the outermost winding of the coil is preferably twisted inwardly towards the axis of the coil so as to form an eyelet, which, When the coil is pushed over the end of the terminal, will'surround the end of the latter in such a manner that a small space is formed between the end of the terminal and the surrounding portion of the eyelet. The soldering of the wire to the terminal is eilected by this space being filled with tin-solder. The advantage hereby attained is that the soldered joint does not increase the thickness of the contact end materially, and in the case of any subsequent addition of new connections, for instance when an existing multiple panel comprising a number of terminal banks or distributing frames is to be amplified by the addition of one or more further terminal banks, the corresponding additional conductors or wire ends may conveniently be connected to the terminals in the previously assembled banks or distributing frames by pushing the eye-shaped wire ends onto the soldering places on the terminals of one of the last-men tioned banks or frames.

The said resilient coils will reduce the mechanical influence on the soldered joints, owing to pulls or the like exerted on the said conductors.

If several terminal banks in a connecting panel are to be connected in multiple, each of the interconnecting wires should preferably be passed unbroken through the complete panel, and to "this end the portions of each wire, adapted to be connected to the terminals of the intermediate contact banks or distributing frame in the multiple, are wound in double coils in such a manner that the two wire parts extending therefrom lead each to one of the adjoining banks or frames.

In the drawings:

' Fig. l is a diagrammatic plan view of the contact bank of a selector switch in which the bank contacts are disposed in circular rows,

Fig. 2 is a vertical section of a multiple panel consisting of three contact banks and a contact block or multiple block,

Fig. 3 is a portion of the outer face of a contact bank,

Fig. 4 illustrates in a larger scale wire connection between a contact and a Wire connected thereto, in side elevation, and

Fig. 5 is a detail of a wire connection, similarly to a larger scale, in side elevation.

l and 2 are two relatively thin plates of an electric insulating material for instance an artificial resin. As appearing from Fig. 1, these plates are curved cylindrically and are disposed one outside of the other, at a mutual distance a which is large in comparison with their thickness, in such a manner that the two plates cover the entire arc b over which the contacts 5, 6 in the panel concerned are to be distributed. v

The plates l and 2 are supported, in a manner not shown in detail, on a firm base, for instance in that the edges of these plates are held in annular grooves 3 in stationary supporting rings 4, one individual one of which is indicated in Fig. 2, although the same, for the sake of clearness, is shown at some distance from the edges of the plates I and 2 intended to be held in the grooves 3. The plates, however, may be held in any other desired suitable manner in stationary base member not shown on the drawing.

The contacts 5, 6 consist each of a relatively tends considerably beyond the outer one of the plates I and 2.

The contact bank may be constructed in such a manner, Figs. 2 and 3, contact row the contacts are shorter than in the remaining contact rows. The short contacts in one and the same contact row may for intact block 0, Fig. 2.

If required, adhesive substances may be used for fixing the contact parts can be held solely by friction in the The ends 20 of the contact parts 6, Figs. 4 and 5, projecting beyond the plate 2 serve to interconnect the contacts or connecting wires 8, 9, l0, 2|, cf. Figs. 2, 4 and 5.

If the terminals of a distributing frame or of any portion of such frame should not form parts of a contact bank of a selector, but should form a group of terminals for connecting, for instance, several groups of selector switches in multiple, then all of the terminals of such frame 0, Fig. 1, should preferably be one and the same length. The distributing frame 0 will then differ from the contact banks in that all of the terminals are of equal length in the distributing frame, and in that every second terminal in each row of terminals of the frame is omitted, since the number of terminals 5, 6 in a distributing frame should only number of contacts in a thereto.

The wires 8, 9, ID to be connected to the ends of the terminals projecting beyond the rear faces of the banks or frames are disposed between contact bank connected manner that I to connect the latter to be half as great as the the said wire the said ends, as shown in Fig. 1, and these connections will consequently lie well protected against outer forces and will only take up a relatively small space.

The parts of the wires 8, 9, ID to be connected to the contacts 5, 6 may be wound into a helical shape, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5, so as to form coils ll adapted to be pushed over the ends of the contact parts 6 projecting beyond the plate 2. The outer winding [2 in these coils is preferably connected to the contact end 20 space is filled with solder-tin, while the remaining part of the coil l I is not connected mechanically to the contact part 6, but loosely encircles the same and, thus, forms a resilient connection between the soldered part l2 the Wire 8, 9 or ID concerned, By these means the advantage is attained that the connection between the contacts and the Wires becomes resilient.

If the wires 8, 9, ID are to eifect a multiple connection, as shown in Fig. 2, i. e. if they are to effect the mutual connection of several sets of contacts, the contacts in various contact banks helical coil, same manner as in Fig. 4, is twisted so as the end of the corresponding contact part.

As appearing from Fig. 4, this eyelet will not the thickness at the end of the contact part 6 but, on the contrary, together with the soldering-tin in the space 25 it the contact block C, formed at the ends of the wires 2| which efiect the connection between these two contact blocks over the eyelets l2, in order contact ends becoming too short.

Instead of the ends of the wires 2| being formed as eyelets 22 pushed over the eyelets l2, ends may simply be inserted in the eyelets l2 while being soldered thereto.

multiple.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our invention and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we claim is:

l. A conductor adapted to connect a plurality of terminals, said conductor having a plurality of resilient helical portions integral therewith, each of said resilient portions being wrapped about a terminal and soldered at its outer end only to the outer end of a terminal to connect the conductor to said terminal.

2. A conductor adapted to connect a plurality of terminals, said conductor having a plurality of resilient portions integral therewith, each of said resilient portions comprising a pair of intermeshed helical windings of the same pitch joined at their outer ends and wrapped about a terminal, the outer ends of the windings being soldered to the outer end only of the terminal to connect the conductor to said terminal.

3. A conductor acording to claim. 2, in which the outer ends of the windings are joined by a loop forming a solder receiving eyelet.

4. In an electrical connection a terminal, a conductor having a helical coil at one end thereof and integral therewith, said coil surrounding the terminal and being soldered at its end remote from the conductor to the outer end of the terminal, the pitch of said helical coil being such that adjacent convolutions of the coil are spaced apart to provide an open sheath for the terminal.

5. In an electrical connection a terminal, a conductor having a loop portion intermediate its ends in the form of a double helical coil with, the convolutions of one coil intermeshed with the convolutions of the other coil and with the adjacent intermeshed convolutions spaced apart to provide an open casing, said casing surrounding the terminal, and means connecting the end of the double coil, remote from the conductor proper, to the outer end of the terminal.

6. A connector adapted to interconnect a plurality of terminals, the said connector comprising a wire having a plurality of soldering loops formed integrally with the wire and arranged at mutual distance along the wire, and a plurality of helically wound wire portions formed integrally with the wire and adjacent each one of said soldering loops.

7. A connector adapted to interconnect a plurality of terminals, the said connector comprising a wire having a plurality of soldering loops formed integrally with the wire and arranged at mutual distance along the wire, and a plurality of helically Wound wire portions adjacent each one of said soldering loops and consisting each of a pair of helical windings with opposite pitch joints at their outer ends by the adjacent soldering loop.

8. A connector adapted to interconnect a plurality of terminals, the said connector comprising a wire having a plurality of soldering loops formed integrally with the wire and arranged at mutual distance along the wire, and a plurality of helically wound wire portions of different lengths adjacent each one of said soldering loops and. consisting each of helical Winding-s with opposite pitch joints at their outer ends by the adjacent soldering loop.

MORTEN BALTHAZAR RICHTER. WILLY ROMEORENU SCHYTTE. 

